In the television industry, the term “trick modes” refers to a set of delivery platform capabilities that mimics the capabilities of older, more traditional appliances for watching videos, such as video cassette recorders (i.e., VCRs). The most common trick modes found in delivery platforms include pausing a video during playback, stopping a video that is playing, “fast-forwarding” a video to a later point in time, and “rewinding” a video to an earlier point in time. There may be other types of “trick mode” capabilities in a player, such as “skipping ahead” to a later point in time in a video.
There are times when a content programmer or a content provider may wish to block a viewer from using one or more trick modes on his or her delivery platform. For example, in the past, a viewer may employ a VCR to record an episode of the show “30 Rock” to tape and then to watch it later. When the viewer views the taped episode, the viewer may fast-forward through all of the commercials to view the episode in the shortest time possible without watching the commercial content that the individual did not consider entertaining. This was acceptable under the traditional streaming model (though not entirely, as content providers originally attempted to outlaw VCRs) mainly because no one could really do anything to determine when it was happening, nor could anyone do anything to stop it from happening.
However, the ongoing shift in behavior from users consuming content via live streaming on television to consuming time-shifted or on-demand content has given rise to delivery platform technology that can: (a) provide more transparency into how watchers are consuming video content, and (b) give providers the ability to exert some control over how they permit their content to be consumed.
In a nutshell, providers want to be able to stop viewers from fast-forwarding or skipping through advertisements while still permitting them to use these and other trick mode controls during the entertainment content. This requires the ability to disable some or all trick modes during some segments of content and to enable some or all trick modes during other segments of content.